Students

Academics

Outstanding Senior Student

Anna Zander

Anna Zander will be completing her BS in Plant and Soil Sciences at OSU in May, 2017. She has maintained a 3.864 GPA while perusing her Agronomic Business degree. Anna has not only been an outstanding student, she has been a member and officer of the Agronomy Club, Soil and Water Conservation Club, and has held an internship with Farmers Grain Company for two years. She also received a Sitlington Undergraduate Research Scholarship in 2014, working with Dr. Yan’s wheat genetic and breeding laboratory. Ms. Zander has also committed to a MS program that she will be starting this summer, working with Dr. Lofton has her primary advisor. In addition to this award, Anna was also selected as the Oklahoma State University Outstanding Senior for ASA-CSSA-SSSA.

Outstanding M.S. Student

Patrick Curl

Patrick Curl completed his BS in Plant and Soil Sciences at OSU in 2014, and is scheduled to complete his MS degree in May, 2017. His MS program has been under the guidance of Dr. Sergio Abit and Dr. Tyson Ochsner. His research has focused on growth dynamics of soybean experiencing drought stress. Patrick has completed field and growth chamber studies documenting the response of soybean photosynthesis, bean growth, and bean abortion to transient late-season soil moisture deficits. He has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout his undergraduate and graduate programs, all while helping to run his family’s farming operation near Braman, OK, on evenings and weekends. Patrick also served for two years as a lead graduate teaching assistant for Dr. Abit’s large introductory soil course. He has authored or co-authored three presentations at the ASA-CSSA-SSSA national meetings, was selected as a Golden Opportunity Scholar by ASA in 2014, and earned 2nd place in the student poster contest for the Crop Physiology division in 2016.

Outstanding PhD student

Sulochana Dhital

Dr. Dhital completed her MS degree in May, 2013, and her PhD in December 2016. Both graduate degrees were in Soil Fertility at Oklahoma State University under the guidance of Dr. Bill Raun. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science in Nepal. Her MS work at OSU focused on foliar applied Nitrogen and Sulfur for improved yield and grain protein in winter wheat. Dr. Dhital has published two senior authored peer reviewed articles and is a co-author on four additional papers published in refereed journals. Recently she completed a comprehensive review showing how fertilizer N rates for optimal yield change dramatically from one season to the next, and location to location. Knowledge generated from this research is valuable because N application rates are often not adjusted as a function of temporal variability. Her paper was recently published in Agronomy Journal, and where it very quickly rose to the #1 spot for papers being downloaded (https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/aj/most-cited). Dr. Dhital is the very first OSU graduate student to receive this kind of recognition in the journal.

2017 Plant and Soil SciencesResearch Symposium

We are very pleased with the degree of participation in yesterday’s research symposium. We had 29 posters and at one point, there were 66 people in the hallway!